Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, review

Noel Gallagher’s post-Oasis career has pretty much carried on where his old band left off. Here he is again, selling out arenas throughout the land, touring the globe and raising up the kind of anthemic choruses that incite mass shout-a-longs and uncommon levels of devotion. And while brother Liam’s Beady Eye project appeared to briefly flutter then flop, you get the impression that Noel’s High Flying Birds are here to roost.

It’s not hard to see why he inspires such loyalty among the faithful. This week’s homecoming gig in Manchester, the first of an eight-date swing across the UK before lighting out for Europe and the States, was a case of giving ’em what they want. Nearly half the set-list was given over to Oasis songs. That said, they weren’t always the ones you might have expected.

The thrashy thrills of the relatively obscure Mucky Fingers suggested that Gallagher still harbours fantasies of fronting his own no-holds garage band, while the inclusion of old B-side Talk Tonight was similarly surprising. When the big guns came out it didn’t always work: an acoustic take on Supersonic deftly stripped it back to its folksy core, but a thin version of Whatever, shorn of Liam’s customary muscle, only served to highlight Noel’s shortcomings as a singer.

He’s a solid enough frontman though. And while the High Flying Birds songs occasionally sag on record, in a live setting they palpably grow. Neither The Death Of You And Me or (Stranded On) The Wrong Beach may be the greatest tunes Gallagher’s ever written, but there’s something about both of them that prompted young and middle-aged alike to throw open their arms, jab pint pots into the air and bellow along.

Current single Dream On was given brassy punch by a three-piece horn section, while the presence of the Crouch End Festival Chorus brought heavenly uplift to album highlight Everybody’s On The Run. The terrific, strobe-lit din of the unreleased song Freaky Teeth, meanwhile, suggested that Noel’s muse has yet to desert him.

Related Articles

He led the five-piece band through a trio of Oasis favourites to finish, though Little By Little and The Importance Of Being Idle both paled beside the night’s hysteria-inducing climax, Don’t Look Back In Anger. These are good times for Noel Gallagher. With a Brits performance and NME’s Godlike Genius Award imminent, it seems the road is once again rising to meet him.